We recently signed a deal on a custom order X5D that we are paying cash for and picking up at the Performance Delivery Center. So I can't comment on your lease deal, as we never considered a lease vs. purchase. However, just curious as to your option choices. We found the $1,500 premium sound to be not that much better sound quality than the standard (good) system and with BMW Apps, son't see any value in having Sirius subscription. (Been there, done that with 2 Acura's and a Porsche). Also, we didn't see much value in the Cold Weather package inasmuch as heated front seats are already standard and the ski bag would be useless for us. We live in DC area, but have second home in snow country and still didn't think that rear seat heating was worth getting the CWP.

On other hand, we ordered the sport activity package for the more comfortable sport seats, sport steering wheel and (subjective) better looking 19" wheels. The sport seats alone are worth it to me.

Are you taking a vehicle off the lot, or ordering to your specs and, if the latter, what made you pick the options you chose.

The person you replied to is considering a lease, which means the cost of satellite and premium sound only add a few dollars per month to the lease.

The premium sound didn't sound much better to you because you were listening to default settings. Premium sound is noticeably better if you take the time to understand the system and set it up properly. The no-cost multi-contour seat option with the sport package is a better seating option than the sport seats when your priority is comfort.

The down side to ordering a base vehicle without things like satellite radio and the heated steering wheel that comes with cold-weather package is that it makes the vehicle less desirable and therefore less valuable if you ever trade it in. Especially in the DC area, which has a very competitive luxury vehicle market where people expect a luxury SUV to actually have luxury features.

I'm not sure how adding $2,250 to the capital cost with premium sound and cold weather packages only adds a "few" dollars to the monthly lease. And, unless I'm mistaken, the multi-contour seats in the x5D are not a no-cost option, but something like $900. Which we tried out and did not like any more than the firmer, side bolster adjustable sport seats. Others may think the incremental $900 is worth it.

As far as your comment on "luxury" expectations, I agree with you to a certain extent. But.....we chose to spend an extra $10-12k over a 2012 MDX "Advance" precisely because of the way the X5D drives and handles. If you want every luxury do-dad, the MDX and Audi Q7 kill the X5, with adaptive cruise control, lane change warning, accident mitigation braking, much better navigation, better sound systems, etc. You can check every box you want on a BMW X5 and you still won't have the latest and greatest luxury or technological features. As such, we decided to check boxes that were important to us, period. And if premium sound is really worth $1,500 to someone else, great. But it's an expensive box that even almost every dealer admitted they wouldn't check, if ordering for themselves. Especially with Apple i-phone connectivity putting a big dent in the value of satellite radio.

FWIW, I sold my 2005 911S last spring that had $13,000 worth of options. I had bought the car off the lot at a $12k discount that made up for some options that I thought were frivolous. Upon resale through a high end independent Porsche shop, the $1,500 upgraded Bose system was worth exactly $0. Navigation and the performance oriented options were probably worth half of what they cost. The next time around, I'll order to my exact specs, get a 5-6% discount off MSRP, and save at least a similar amount by avoiding the boxes that aren't really worth anything to me (or 99% of 2nd owners).

Hi Gerry. The .00145 money factor that you have seen mentioned here is indeed correct. If your credit is in good shape, the dealer that quoted you the .00165 factor is marking your rate up to add additional back-end profit to your deal.

I'm still fighting their contention that I can't combine the USAA member $1000 discount with the BMW Drive for USA $1000 credit, the BMW Loyalty $750 credit and the BMW Ultimate Drive $500 toward first lease payment. Am I asking too much of them??

Hi gerry70, all the incentives you are trying to get are stackable. Meaning you can combine them all. None of them are mutually exclusive. Don't let the dealer tell you otherwise. I checked all the rules on each of them and none of them say that they cant be combined. Hope this helps.

Are you sure about that? I was told that the drive event $1,000 could be applied on top of the others, but that one could EITHER get a USAA or a BMW Loyalty discount, but not both of those. We were working with a sales manager that had a direct line to a BMW financial services "insider" and was able to let us know 2 weeks in advance that the $4,500 eco-credit was going to be extended past the original July 9 expiration date, so I'd be surprised if he was wrong about this either/or question.

4tune, this looks like a better deal than I have found. Please tell me where you got a deal at $500 over invoice, before the rebates. The lowest I can find in Northern California is $1000 over invoice..

No problem 4tune. BMW Financial Services' buy rate lease money factor and residual value for a 36-month lease of a 2013 X5 xDrive35i Premium with 12,000 miles per year are .00145 and 59%, respectively for consumers who qualify for its top credit tier.

The residual for an otherwise identical lease with 10,000 miles per year would be 1% higher.

Hi Car_man, thank you for that information. I have posted on this forum a couple of times and thanks to your information I was able to agree on a great deal on a BMW X5 premium. However, I was checking in with the dealership this week to set up a time to go in to sign papers and the dealership went back on the deal. The sales manager said that the client advisor had made a mistake and the deal is no longer on the table. I had done a credit app but have not signed any papers. Because they have done this I will be walking away from the deal. Just wanted to make sure I am not liable. Please advise. Thanks.

If anything, you could claim damages against them if you lost another deal, due to their mistake, but it's probably not worth taking legal action.

FWIW, the sales manager at a BMW dealership in Baltimore went out of his way to call me on my office and cell phone when he realized that I as not a previous BMW customer and they made a mistake on a quote. He offered that if I still wanted tl drive 50 miles and look at the car, he'd pick up dinner for my family, no obligation to buy.